Beware of breaching Facebook rules

Beware of breaching Facebook rules

SUNSHINE Coast social media expert Donna Hamer has warned businesses breaching Facebook rules that they risk having their pages wiped by administrators.

Her comments follow those of social media law expert Jamie White who said 50% of Facebook business pages were in breach of Facebook's Promotional Guidelines.

"One has to ask why this is the case," Ms Hamer, who runs Simple Online Solutions and regularly schools business owners in social media, said.

"Is it because business owners don't care, or is it because they clearly haven't bothered to educate themselves on the ever-growing, ever-changing world of social media?"

She said despite being widespread in its use, social media was still in its infancy and changed almost daily.

"Each social media platform has its own set of rules and regulations.

"It's up to the business owner to educate their team on these rules and how they affect their business.

"As a Facebook Competition Specialist, I am asked often 'why should I comply with Facebook's Promotional Guidelines, when clearly so many big brands don't?'.

"The simple answer is that there are rules which business owners need to follow.

"Just because another car speeds, doesn't mean you should."

Three simple rules

Step 1 - Use a third party app (this is a little piece of software that you add to your Facebook Page). It manages the entries, is very simple to use and complies with the promotional guidelines.

Step 2 - Understand and implement the seven promotional guidelines. For example, don't ask people to use any of Facebook's functions such as liking a post, commenting on a post, sharing a post, tagging and so on - to enter or run your competition or promotion.

Step 3 - Educate yourself and your team on Facebook promotional guidelines so that your business continues to grow its digital footprint.

"Facebook has already started issuing warnings to businesses who are not complying," Ms Hamer said. "I believe it won't be long before Facebook takes a stance on the rule breakers and takes massive action.